Rushton's World Obernewtyn
by ReverseQueen
Summary: Rushton's thoughts on Elspeth during Obernewtyn and every one of their encounters reversed. Sorry, no romance yet. Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Disclaimer: The amazing Isobelle Carmody owns the characters and plot of Obernewtyn, I just wanted an insight into Rushton's World (hence the title). Sorry if I've made mistakes; Rushton is a more complicated character than you think.**

I heard a number of quiet footsteps and realized that this was the promised tour of Misfits who worked in the house. I picked up the stupid new pig and went out to meet Ariel, who was sure to be leading the expedition.

I greeted him, and had just begun to recount to him my purchase of the squirming creature I held in my arms when I noticed one of the Misfits. She was around sixteen (A/N: I didn't want to make the age gap too big, because that's just weird… I may very well be wrong about her age, and I know that Jes is sixteen and Elf's probably younger… but whatever.), with long eyelashes that curled gently against her cheeks. As a lock of black hair fell from behind her ears she looked up and her gaze locked on to mine. I saw fear and then defiance swirl through her expression, and then she looked down again, her lips pressed tightly together. I forced my eyes to roam through the whole group to cover the attention I had paid the new girl.

"This is Rushton" Ariel said. "He is our farm overseer." Ariel seemed suspicious.

I gave a brief explanation about the farms, and when I had finished my eyes flickered involuntarily back to the new girl. I had not paid any attention before, but she had long, glossy dark hair tied back in a thick braid, and skin that was as pale as cream. Her mouth twisted and worry filled her eyes as she analysed my brief glance, and we went our opposite ways.

Who was she, just a girl bordering on womanhood, to enter my world and turn in inside out? I did not like this sensation of my façade slipping.

She must not be allowed to interrupt my plans. I made up my mind, right there and then, to hate her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was walking through the house when I heard a frail-sounding scream. Thinking of Selmar, I hastened towards the sound, and though I wasn't surprised to see the subject of my thoughts clawing at the wall, I was to see the strange one I had met on the farms.

I did not show my astonishment. I knelt beside Selmar, murmuring in a soothing voice and she crawled into my arms. I could feel her fear.

"Oh, Selmar", I murmured, looking up at the other girl accusingly. She drew herself up and a pride I had not seen before gleamed in her eyes.

"I did nothing to her. She was like this when I found her. She won't tell me what happened" she said in an arctic tone.

I had to stick to my plan of hating her, but even now something was pushing at my conscience to stop my attitude. What reason did I have to hate her? I remembered my friend's faces and all of the risks I had taken.

"What are you doing alone in the halls?" I asked. She frowned, and muttered something about the courtyard roof and finding Matthew. I pasted a cold, disbelieving look on my face, and she stammered to a halt.

"You had better go find Matthew then. Go back that way and you will find yourself in the right section. And see you don't wander about like this again. This part of the house is forbidden", I said coldly. She bit her lip and turned away, walking swiftly back down the corridor.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I knew this was going to be trouble. I re-entered the stables to find Elspeth (I had found out her name from Louis the night before) crouched curiously in front of the dog. Sensing me come in, she looked up at me with open dislike.

I ordered her to follow me, and I gave her instructions about hay and leading the horses out of their stalls, and I left her to it. I exited the barn with a feeling of amusement; I wished to see how good she was at farm work.

After a little while, I came back in, expecting her to only have done one or two horses. To my complete amazement, she had finished and was leaning on a post watching the horses. I turned my amazement into disapproval for the sake of my plans

"You have been uncommonly fast", I admonished stonily, and I watched her turn, red creeping up her neck.

"Too quick to believe, even if Enoch did recommend you" I saw her withdraw slightly and fear flicker across her face.

"Well?" I enquired grimly.

"I… my father kept horses", she stammered, looking down. I nodded, though I did not believe her.

"All right. There are packages of food from the kitchen for midmeal out by the barn. I'll find something else for the afternoon." I said, and she nearly sprinted from the barn.

I came back out to find her watching Matthew and the blind boy, Dameon, return to work. I came to stand beside her and sneered:

"I see you accomplish many things easily. You choose companions as easily as you muck out a stable. I should have thought the Orphan life would have taught you more caution." She was silent.

"Well, this afternoon you can show me your talents at milking. I don't suppose your father had cows as well as horses?" I enquired, wishing to mock her. She merely sighed and fell into step behind me. Louis was sitting at the front of the dairy.

"Louis, this is Elspeth Gordie." I said. "You can have her for the afternoon."

"I hope she's quicker than th' last", he muttered, clearly appraising her.

"Oh she's quick all right" I said pointedly as she followed the old man. She turned with a curious expression, expecting to see the back of me. She pressed her lips together and turned away.

I found her a while later sitting out side the barn, looking weary.

"Don't tell me you are tired?" I sneered. She looked up at me with a fierce hatred in her eyes.

"People like you are the worst sort", she growled, fury in her voice. "You make everything so much worse with your sneering and snide comments. I do my work. Why won't you just leave me alone?" I felt slightly hurt, but I would not allow that to show.

"I hardly think the opinions of one stupid Misfit will worry me too much" I said. She merely sighed and looked wearily at me. She rose with the grace of one who is resigned to one's fate, and joined her friends, though she did not speak to them. She did not look back.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You! Elspeth, come with me", I called, wishing to ask her about Selmar. She squinted into the sun behind which came from behind me and reluctantly followed me.

"You are foolhardy to make your friendships so blatant" I reprimanded, though I myself did not know why… there didn't seem to be any harm in her having friends. She stared at me, her expression unreadable; I shook my head.

"But I did not call you to say that. The girl Selmar, when did you last see her?"

"She sleeps in my room, but she wanders at night."

"Did she sleep there the night before she disappeared?"

"I can't remember." She paused. "Why do you want to know?"

I pressed my lips together. "You have no right to ask me questions"

I could feel her anger. "And what right have you to ask them of me?" she demanded.

How dare she! Contradicting me when she had made my life difficult enough already…

"Fool of a girl", I snarled, and I knew from her sudden drawback that she was afraid of my anger. She did not speak. "Go back to your cows."

Her face hardened and she turned stiffly in the other direction.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I was working in one of the barns with Elspeth in the other section when I heard stifled weeping.

"What is it?" I called, feeling cautious. I did not want a problem on my hands.

"Nothing that you should feel compelled to report!" I heard, and with surprise I recognized the voice of Elspeth Gordie, but what surprised me was not hearing her, but the tone she spoke in. Instead of the guarded, angry tone she usually conversed with me in, this voice was hysterical with what I presumed to be grief. But the reporting part of her sentence… I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I am not planning to kill anyone, or burn down your precious farms. There is no dire plot in hand. Nothing… of any importance has happened. I have just heard my brother has been murdered by that filthy Council." She shuddered and burst into tears. I realized she believed me to be an informant. I knelt down beside her and gently touched her arm.

"I suppose you will not believe it, but I am no informant for Vega. I am sorry about the death of your brother. You must think very badly of me to imagine I have no compassion. I have only a half brother and there is nothing between us. I could almost envy your affection, thought now it brings you much pain. I have cared for few since the death of my mother, when I came here. My life has been filled with only anger and cold purpose…" I could see that this surprised her as she looked up at me with wide eyes, sparkling with recently shed tears. I bent closer.

"Why do you plague me?" I whispered, for this was the truth. Why did her wide eyes trouble me so much? Why did hurting her go against my every motive? Why was she so… intoxicating? She bit her lip and shook her head. I sat back, aware of being so close to her. It made me feel strangely vulnerable.

"Come now. You must return to work. It is not wise to grieve too long and though I am no tattletale, there are many who are." I said.

She rose from the hay, her face devoid of expression. I sent her to a distant field where she could be on her own; I told her she was to check the foot of a horse that I said might be going lame. I watched her stand in front of the animal and bow her head, and without her doing anything the horse lifted its foot and did not snort or kick out.

In that moment, I existed on three revelations: One, I could not be angry with her any longer. Two, I found her composure strangely graceful instead of haughty, for I now saw that I had viewed her in the wrong light. And lastly, I was completely, irreversibly in love with her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It was raining; a horrible mixture of sleet and snow. I sent Elspeth to collect the three naughtiest goats that had escaped rounding up, thinking she would be quickest given her success with the horses,

When she got back to the house though, her lips were nearly blue and her face deathly pale with red blotches blossoming all over it. Drops of water clung to her eyelashes, and every now and then she barked out a hoarse cough. When she stepped in the door, her hands and body were shaking convulsively and strands of sodden black hair clung to her face; water pooled at her feet.

I took one look at her and sent her up to see Guardian Myrna, who reported back to me later, saying that Elspeth had been put to bed.

Some time later, I went to see her to give her the herbs. She was asleep when I arrived, but a thin sheen of sweat covered her face and she was wracked by tremors. Her pale eyelids flickered, and a stream of words poured through her lips. It made my heart thud to know that she had said my name.

I seated myself by her bed and slowly reached out a hand and laid it on her cheek. The tremors stopped and a faint smile caressed her lips. I could have stayed like that forever, but she had begun to stir, and so I withdrew my hand.

She opened her eyes and at first she merely stared ahead, then she sensed my presence and her gaze locked on to mine.

"You are awake at last." I said. "The horses missed you." She frowned, obviously puzzled.

"You look a bit better now", I said, and her gaze sharpened. I realized that someone had come in. Guardian Myrna proceeded to ask about the medicines she had given the horse, then departed. I leaned in close to her, inhaling her scent. She smelled like freshly ironed clothes and hay.

"I told them I wanted to find out what you had fed one of the horses, since you had made it worse, but that isn't true. I came to give you this." I pressed the bag of herbs into her hands and told her to eat them when no-one was around. I also added that they would help her to regain strength quickly. I rose and departed, and my last sight of her was her forehead creased in a frown, her expression pondering.


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Ok Chicas. I know that I have not kept my promise on Rushton's World; instead I want reviews and I will give you chapter seven.

So, instead for now I will be writing oneshots for City of Ember (Never heard of it? Then hear of it. But for those who know about it, I am so pissed off at Jeanne DuPrau for not putting any romance between Lina and Doon. A 'look' doesn't count.)

Sorry for rambling :)


	8. Another annoying AN

Hey gaiz,

Sorry for so many dumb author's notes, because I know that personally, I hate them, so it really annoys me that I have to put so many up now.

Well, you'll all be pleased to know that with The Sending _finally_ out (SQUEE!) I have been re-motivated to continue this story and therefore, hopefully, if people keep reminding me I will finally finish this thing!

YAY!

Big hugs and lots of choc-chip virtual cookies to my readers,

ReverseQueen (aka, that annoying bitch who won't finish this bloody story.)


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